Donald Stout/The Times-PicayuneChelsea Nicholas, age 15, works on brand new computers with some of her classmates at Jefferson Community School as teacher Randall Roussell speaks in a new lab made possible by Delgado Community College and Microsoft Corp.

By Barri Bronston East Jefferson bureau

Glenn Gennaro, principal of Jefferson Community School, beamed as his eighth graders researched hydroelectricity and other scientific concepts Tuesday on sleek new computers for the first time in two years.

The students were engrossed in their work, and Gennaro couldn't have been prouder, especially when he thought back to the technology laboratory that he shut down in 2005.

"The computers weren't useable, so we had to close the lab," Gennaro said. For a school in the business of getting at-risk youth on track, both socially and academically, that isn't exactly what one might call a step in the right direction.

"Delgado saved us," Gennaro said, just before a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil the Workforce Development and Education Digital Library, its 20 computer stations and the latest educational software from Microsoft.

"We would never be able to acquire this equipment and training using our own resources. Our students require the individualized attention that can only be given by using advanced teaching methods and materials."

Located in Shrewsbury just off North Causeway Boulevard, Jefferson Community School opened in 1996 as the first charter school in Louisiana. Serving middle school students who have been expelled from Jefferson public schools for such offenses as fighting and truancy, the school operates independently with its own board of directors and public money under a contract with the Jefferson Parish School Board.

The school's mission is to help students in the sixth through eighth grades learn appropriate academic and behavioral skills, enabling them to return to their regular schools as responsible students. Among other things, the school offers a juvenile delinquency prevention program, conflict resolution skills, social work services and a one-on-one mentoring program.

"Theoretically, at the end of the school year, they should be able to go back to their home school," Gennaro said. "If we do our job, they do go back."

While the school receives much of its operational money from the Jefferson School Board -- about $700,000 a year -- it relies on fund-raisers and grants to pay for supplies and equipment such as the computer lab.

Under Microsoft's Digital Literacy grant, students will learn computer basics along with Internet use, computer safety and digital audio, video and photography. They will also learn about career opportunities in the technology field.

As part of the grant, Pam Thompson, Delgado's Workforce Development and Education Liaison, will train the Jefferson Community School staff in the use of Microsoft teaching tools. Eventually, classrooms will be furnished with their own computers

"The school was hindered technologically because it did not have up-to-date computers," Thompson said. "With the knowledge and skills students will be gaining (through the new lab), we're making them employable."

Thompson was among an array of Delgado officials who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday along with Jefferson Parish school officials, Jefferson business leaders and members of the Jefferson Community School's board of directors, including Col. Nancy Pearson of the Sheriff's Office.

Pearson commended Gennaro for the job he has done in turning around the lives of troubled children.

"If these kids weren't here," she said, "they'd be on the streets. He has given them a future."

Barri Bronston can be reached at bbronston@timespicayune.com or (504) 883-7058.